TWA #84 – Airplanes

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Greetings, short story lovers, and welcome to this week’s mystery prompt.

Is there anything that inspires a sense of adventure more than the bright blue sky stretching out overhead? Is there anything that calls out to our desire for travel, adventure, speed, and new frontiers as much as the air above?

In 1903 the Wright Brothers succeeded in taking the first powered airplane flight, and ever since then humans have been coming up with crazy new ways of taking off. Airplanes have come to factor heavily into every facet of life, from war to business trips, and artists have explored every genre possible from a perch aboard an airplane. You’ve got iconic scenes in North By Northwest, you’ve got non-stop hilarity in Airplane!, you have horror in dozens of forms from monsters on the wing to engines failing, and you have planes representing freedom to move, to travel, to explore.

Our authors’ challenge this week was to write us a story where an airplane is featured heavily. They could use an old prop plane running supplies in Africa, or a fighter jet mixing it up in a war zone, but they had to give us at least one airplane. Oh, and while some airplanes get very very close to space, airplanes do not actually leave the earth’s orbit, so space flights were banned. Other than that? Props, jets, stealth bombers, any airplane will do.

Who will sail off into the wild blue yonder and who will stall on takeoff?

We have two judges that will render their decision next Monday. The third vote comes from you, the readers. We ask that you read both stories objectively, and then leave a comment below or on the story itself. Authors are not allowed to comment on their own stories, but we’re sure they’ll be checking in here. We’ll tally up the totals and announce our champion on Monday.